How to be a jazz drummer?

................................................. ask a jazz drummer!

Drummer - Roy Haynes, Jack Dejohnette, Victor Lewis, Jeff Tain Watts, Lenny White, Ricky Wellman, Brian Blades, Eric Harland, Max Roach, artwork Blakely, Philly Joe Jones, Tony Williams, Jimmy Cobb, Elvin Jones

Jazz drumming is probably the highest art in drumming in terms of complexity. You need to be able to keep up with complicated rhythms and play a drum solo every once in a while.

Start with a good foundation on the easier stuff, basic beats. Build from there. Work on playing cool fills. Get a good drumming teacher that can teach you the basics. In the mean time, listen to Jack DeJohnette and Art Blakey. They are fantastic jazz drummers. Really listen to what they do and really pay attention to what they do with their sticks.

After mastering the basics, switching to a private jazz drumming teacher is also good at this point. Make sure you get a good one because there are many phonies out there. Make sure he/she specializes in jazz. You can tell this if he doesn't use his kick drum at all. The less kick he or she uses, the less chance that he or she is a phony.

Make sure that you have the proper kit as well. Jazz kits usually have a really good ride cymbal and a small kick drum. It all depends on taste, but make sure you can produce the right sound with your kit.

I don't play drums but i do play guitar rather well. I would suggest listening to as much jazz as you can and playing as much as you can. Do your best to emulate the drummers you enjoy and don't worry if you don't get it exactly right because the differences will make you unique (which is more important than anything in music). Work hard at it and in time you will find yourself to be a jazz drummer. Don't be impatient because it won't happen over night. Most of all have fun doing it or you won't be able to do it enough to get good at it.

Beat hell outta them skins!

I think the best way to get started is to learn from the masters. Listen and play along with recording of famous jazz musicians. Pay close attention to the style and how the rhythms played by the drummer relate to the other instruments. Start out with the big band jazz leaders like Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman. Work your way up to the legendary drummers like Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich and others. The biggest thing you can do is listen. After you start to get a handle on styles and patterns find a band to get involved with that has good leadership to learn from. Good luck and have fun, playing jazz is awesome.

you have to start with the BLUES, that's where jazz starts.
get some recordings b.b. & albert king they usualy have a
jazzy band set up.from there get charlie parker,or any jazz greats,you`ll find tons of great jazz drumming...then you have to
"woodshed" a few years.work your hands and feet to the bone,
maby then you could know about jazz drumming. have fun.......

learn jazz drumming?